THE closure of a special school for children with complex learning difficulties is expected to be given the go-ahead by Liverpool councillors tomorrow.

But Cllr Paul Clein, the council's executive member for education, said speculation that all special schools across the city face closure in the near future is wrong.

The council is being forced to reorganise its provision of primary education for pupils with CLD because numbers attending have dramatically fallen.

Cllr Clein said: "This is because the initiative to educate these children in mainstream schools has been an overwhelming success."

The council's executive board is expected to approve the start of a consultation process on the closure of Watergate School.

The school was at one time based in Woolton, but is now divided between two sites serving the south and north of the city.

Currently the number attending Watergate's two sites is 67, compared to 140 just two years ago.

Both sites at Sherwoods Lane and Upper Essex Street have seen numbers fall.

The two school units will close if the go-ahead is given, with children sent to specially resourced places at Beaufort Park CP School in Dingle and Meadow Bank Special School in the north of the City.

The pupils currently attending the Sherwoods Lane site would be transferred to the adjacent Meadow Bank.

As part of the same process the Speech and Language Units at the two Watergate sites will be relocated to mainstream schools.